A mass exodus of senior staff has taken place today at The New Republic after the Facebook billionaire owner vowed to create a 'digital medial company' and overhaul the vision of a magazine built over a century.

Top editor Franklin Foer, and literary editor, Leon Wieseltier, who has been at the Washington D.C.-based magazine for three decades, resigned on Thursday and were quickly followed by ranks of their senior staff. The digital media editor, Hillary Kelly, resigned while on honeymoon in Africa.

The exits, a total of 48 staff and contributing editors, came after a deep divide in opinion over the U-turn planned for the title by owner Chris Hughes.

The Silicon Valley wunderkind, 31, who made billions alongside Mark Zuckerberg as a founding member of Facebook, took over as publisher in 2012.

Chris Hughes (left), publisher of The New Republic and CEO Guy Vidra (right). Hughes, a 31-year-old Facebook billionaire, purchased TNR two years ago and today sees a mass exodus of senior staff concerned with the direction of the esteemed publication into a 'digital media company'. Vidra riled employees with his apparent lack of respect for the magazine's past and his intent on 'breaking s***'

Institution: The majority of senior editorial staff at The New Republic handed in their resignations this week over the direction that the magazine was taking

Since buying the magazine, while it was financial dire straits, Hughes made clear that he was building a 'digital media company', while his chief executive Guy Vidra, formerly of Yahoo!, told staff in recent meetings that he wanted to 'break s***'.

One senior TNR editor, Julia Ioffe, posted a lengthy message on Facebook on Friday where she spoke of her devastation at leaving The New Republic and the reason why she was doing so.

She posted: 'The narrative you're going to see Chris and Guy put out there is that I and the rest of my colleagues who quit today were dinosaurs, who think that the Internet is scary and that Buzzfeed is a slur.

'Don't believe them. The staff at TNR has always been faithful to the magazine's founding mission to experiment, and nowhere have I been so encouraged to do so.

'There was no opposition in the editorial ranks to expanding TNR's web presence, to innovating digitally.'

According to Politico, Foer found out that Bloomberg Media editor Gabriel Snyder was lined up to replace him before he abruptly stepped down.

Top editor Franklin Foer (pictured left) and literary editor, Leon Wieseltier (right) speaking at the New Republic Centennial in November. Both abruptly resigned on Thursday over a split in vision with new management

Poetry editor Henri Cole also resigned along with dance editor Jennifer Homans and music writer David Hajdu. The staff were joined by a long list of writers who regularly contributed to the magazine.

Hughes responded to his staff walkout with a statement on Friday, which read: 'I am saddened by the loss of such great talent @tnr, many of whom have played an important role in making The New Republic so successful.'

'It has been a privilege to work with them, and I wish them only the best. This is a time of transition, but I am excited to work with our team – both new and old alike – as we pave a new way forward.

Share this article

'The singular importance of The New Republic as an institution can and will be preserved, because it’s bigger than any one of us.'

Rumblings of trouble in the TNR newsroom have been growing since Hughes took over in 2012. Rifts appeared to have deepened as the magazine approached its centennial celebrations.

The New York Times reported that soon after Guy Vidra joined as CEO in October, he gathered staff to tell them he 'there were peacetime chief executives and wartime chief executives, and he was the latter'.

Mr Vidra also said he planned to 'break s***', a popular phrase in Silicon Valley, for upending the status quo. Staff were also concerned over the new CEO's apparent focus on driving web traffic.

The New Republic publisher Chris Hughes, who bought the magazine in 2012, with his Facebook fortune, posted this message on Twitter on Friday as the majority of the old guard left the magazine

Billionaire Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, publisher of The New Republic, with his partner Sean Eldridge

At the black-tie centennial gala in November to celebrate the magazine's long history, the schism was apparent from the speeches on stage.

While editors Foer and Wieseltier celebrated the magazine's liberal history and commentary on arts and politics, Hughes and Vidra spoke of the future in remarks littered with tech buzzwords.

On Thursday, both Mr Foer and Mr Wieseltier resigned. According to Politico, Mr Wieseltier said, through tears, that his 31 years at the magazine was 'the best thing I’ve done in my little life'.

Gabriel Snyder, who was previously in charge at Gawker and The Wire, and most recently at Bloomberg Media, will take over at the helm as editor-in-chief.

The New Republic will drop down from 20 issues a year to ten and become, according to the NY Times quoting Mr Vidra, 'a vertically integrated digital media company'.